Province uses TOIFA Awards to defend spending on Bollywood show

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The B.C. government took advantage of the Times of India Film Awards at BC Place on Saturday night – the first hosting outside India – to defend the ceremony’s multi-million-dollar cost to B.C. voters and promote B.C. to the 400 million viewers expected to tune in from South Asia and around the globe.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark kicked off the event by reiterating how TOIFA could strengthen trade and cultural ties between the province and the subcontinent.

“Let’s use this wonderful celebration of Indian film to continue to build more bridges between us. More trade opportunities, more tourism and definitely more of your movies right here in beautiful British Columbia,” she told the crowd of more than 38,000.

The B.C. government spent $11 million promoting and staging the spectacle, which included an opening photo montage depicting humbly dressed Indian families and transitioned into a panoramic shot of the Vancouver skyline on the BC Place jumbo screens.

Set to sentimental Hindi music, scenes of West coast road hockey, graduations and weddings followed short video clips of suburban families, young professionals and a turbaned man driving a John Deere tractor. A second video of a couple’s journey from rural India to the Lower Mainland brought out the personal side of the India-Canada connection.

“This event is just part of what’s going to inject millions into our economy,” Clark said in January, when she announced Vancouver would host TOIFA.

Critics responded that the spectacle – which will not air in India for several weeks and in Canada in June – was a waste of taxpayer dollars and a calculated ploy to woo ethnic voters.

“They invented the whole new Bollywood awards show trademarked and sponsored solely by the B.C. government so they could hold the event in April,” said NDP culture critic Spenser Chandra Herbert in a news release.

The criticism was especially stinging after the B.C. government’s leaked “multicultural outreach” memo — outed last month — which raised the curtain on a strategy to garner ethnic votes in the Lower Mainland with “quick wins,” like apologizing for historical injustices, using taxpayer funds.

B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong stepped to the microphone partway through the show and joked self-deprecatingly about a possible future career in acting, given his government’s precarious pre-election position: “Well, you never know when you might be looking for work.”

Despite a lacklustre showing at TOIFA’s inaugural event Thursday night – a Bollywood music celebration at Pacific Coliseum attended by just 4,800 fans – the nearly 40,000 spectators at BC Place on Saturday exceeded expectations. They paid between $60 and $2,100 for the privilege, with tickets still available just hours before the show, according to Ticketmaster.

Hundreds of eager fans defied the rain to catch a glimpse of their favourite South Asian stars, who began to strut the red carpet shortly after 6 p.m.

Sangram Chaban and Abhonardan Mannarkor — both 29-year-old MBA students at the University of Canada West who arrived in Vancouver from Mumbai more than a year ago — waited on tiptoes for the arrival of megastars like Shahrukh Khan, performing the night’s opening act.

“I can’t wait to see this man. He’s like a god in India. I feel like I’ve known him all my life,” said Chaban, who has attended the TOIFAs once before, in Pune, India.

“This is the biggest event there is in India,” Mannarkor chimed in, arguing the awards ceremony — Bollywood’s answer to the Academy Awards — is bigger than the Oscars, given India’s 1.3 billion people.

“People in India aren’t too familiar with British Columbia,” Chaban said. “This will be a big attraction. They know Toronto, Ontario, but B.C. is not as famous.

“Maybe it will be good for the economy and people will immigrate here,” he said, adding that he hopes to stay in Vancouver after graduation.

Shawls and turbans speckled the crowd of several hundred gathered under a bouquet of umbrellas outside BC Place, where a broad red carpet bristled with cameras before the event’s 9 p.m. start.

Monica Grewal, sporting a maroon scarf and a spangled sari embroidered in gold-coloured thread, waited near Expo Boulevard and Smithe Street for the arrival of stars like Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Sharma.

“I’ve seen their movies since childhood. I’m here for them,” said the 35-year-old Surrey resident, who opted not to join

Despite its characterization as the Oscars of India, the ceremony was perhaps more akin to the People’s Choice Awards, with colourfully dressed fans dancing in the aisles of the stadium, as opposed to tuxedoed industry insiders dining in a glitzy hotel auditorium.

Hosted mainly in Hindi by Bollywood heartthrobs Ranbir Kapoor and Anuskha Sharma, the spectacle kicked off with a classic Bollywood dance number by local performers in bejewelled saris and sherwanis.

The awards ceremony ran past midnight, with a cavalcade of celebrities from the Hindi film industry taking the stage to receive trophies and perform thumping bhangra routines in costumes that ranged from multi-coloured tunics to scanty, burlesque-like threads.

Bollywood fans have also flocked to Vancouverdesi.com, the South Asian news website produced out of The Province newsroom. Page views to Vancouverdesi.com soared in recent days, hitting nearly 500,000 in the last week alone.

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Province uses TOIFA Awards to defend spending on Bollywood show

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